In Canada, many ‘non-GMO’ labels violate country’s labeling standards

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The challenge is we now have this non-GMO label sneaking in to foods that wouldn’t contain it anyway. And for what?

. . . .

The [Canadian Food Inspection Agency] . . . [does] provide some direction in how labels around genetically engineered products . . . should be addressed. I’ll save you the reading and get to the part that concerns this rice & Shredded Wheat:

6.1.4 Claims that a single-ingredient food is not a product of genetic engineering shall not be made for a single ingredient food of which no genetically engineered strains have been offered for sale, unless accompanied by an explanatory statement, for example, like all other oranges, these oranges are not a product of genetic engineering.

We will start with the Shredded Wheat. I’ve searched the box over four or five times and can’t come up with any statement that references genetic engineering. To me, a clear violation of the standard.

The rice company has been a little more cheeky. Beside the Non-GMO Project Verified label – they point you to the ingredients list which is pretty short: Pre-Cooked Rice.

Then it points you to the line “Rice is not produced using genetic engineering.”

That’s a cheeky line since it doesn’t make any reference to the rest of the industry. . .

. . . .Claiming a product is better than the competition, when they are in fact identical. It is driving people away from real knowledge about what it takes to grow food for billions of people around the globe – and instead aims for the short-term gain of a strong corporate quarter.

. . . .

I’ve started the next complaint with the CFIA on that box of Shredded Wheat. I’ll let you know how it goes.

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